Harry Potter Moment of the Week (55): Quibbler or Daily Prophet?

Harry Potter Moment of the Week is a meme hosted by Uncorked Thoughts. The aim of this meme is to share with fellow bloggers a character, spell, chapter, object or quote from the books/films/J. K. Rowling herself or anything Potter related! A list of upcoming topics can be found here.

This week's topic is:
Quibbler or Daily Prophet?

I'm going with The Quibbler on this one. It gave Harry a voice when the Ministry of Magic used the Prophet to drag Harry and Dumbledore's names through the mud. Plus, I think it'd be cool to try on a pair of Spectrespecs!

Review: Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead

* This review may contain spoilers for the previous books in the Bloodlines series.

Silver Shadows (Bloodlines #5)
By Richelle Mead
Publisher: Razorbill
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: Sydney’s worst nightmare has come true: she’s been taken to an Alchemist re-education center, where the Alchemists’ methods for reinforcing loyalty to the organization are every bit as horrible as she feared. Sydney’s prison even prevents Adrian from contacting her through dreams. With no apparent way out of the Alchemists’ grasp, not even Sydney’s formidable logic and resourcefulness may be enough to help her escape.

Review: Although I enjoyed reading The Fiery Heart, I couldn’t help feeling that it just didn’t quite have the same spark as the other Bloodlines novels. Silver Shadows, on the other hand, was absolutely awesome. I devoured it in a little over a day, completely absorbed by poor Sydney’s imprisonment by the Alchemists and both her and Adrian’s attempts to break her out of there.

Sydney is incredible in this book. She’s always been skilled at using logic to escape tough situations, but Alchemist re-education is unlike anything she’s previously gone up against. It’s hell. Re-education has been alluded to in the previous books as something to be avoided at all costs, but it’s another thing entirely to watch Sydney endure physical and psychological torment at the Alchemists’ hands, all in the name of “cleansing” her sin. The Alchemists preach about the evils of vampires, but they’re perfectly fine with breaking their own people.

Even under these conditions, though, Sydney continues to fight. The other detainees in the re-education facility are wary of her because they don’t want association with someone so tainted to delay their own release. Still, Sydney manages to muster a few tenuous alliances in a place where anyone could betray her at any time.

Adrian, meanwhile, is totally falling apart in Sydney’s absence. His spiral into self-destruction is heartbreaking. He’s never felt like more of a failure because he’s unable to find a single clue to Sydney’s whereabouts, even through dreams. Adrian’s struggles may be of a different nature than Sydney’s, but his pain is very much as searing as hers is.

The tension build-up in Silver Shadows is superb. There’s barely a lull in the novel, especially in Sydney’s chapters. Her mind is always at work to undermine her captors, all while she tries to convince them that rehabilitation is working. It takes Adrian a while to find his way, but when he does . . . he’s simply amazing. I didn’t think it was possible to love him more than I already did, but by the end of this book, I’d found tons more love for him. I can’t forget to mention how much I loved Adrian and Sydney’s extended family, too: Jill, Eddie, Angeline, Trey, new-ish guy Neil, Ms. Terwilliger, and, of course, little Hopper. They’d do anything for each other, and that’s truly on display here. Heck, this book even gave me a newfound respect for rebel Alchemist Marcus Finch.

Richelle Mead is brilliant at dropping bombshell endings, and this one . . . . Let’s just say that I wish I could fast forward time to the release date for the next book.

All in All: Silver Shadows blew me away. The dual POVs suited it perfectly, and it just threw twist after twist at you.

20 Things You Might Not Know About Me

I saw this post over at my buddy Micheline's blog, Lunar Rainbows, and thought it was awesome. I really enjoy reading these kinds of posts and figured I'd join in on the fun, so here goes:

1. How tall are you?
I stand a whopping 5'0"! And by "whopping," obviously I mean "not whopping."

2. Do you have a hidden talent? If so, what?
If I have a hidden talent, then it's still hidden because I got nothing for this question.

3. What's your biggest blog related pet peeve?
Captcha. I usually have a hard time deciphering those things and get frazzled when it complains that I've entered the jumble of letters/numbers incorrectly. Yes, spam comments are annoying, but I find Captcha even more so.

4. What's your biggest non-blog related pet peeve?
Rudeness. There's just no excuse for it.

5. What's your favorite song?
"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?" - Elvis Costello & The Attractions

6. What's your favorite Etsy shop that isn't yours?
I haven't checked out Etsy very much, which is a good thing because I'd probably spend a ton of money.

7. What's your favorite way to spend your free time when you're alone?
Reading, knitting.

8. What's your favorite junk food?
Reese's Peanut Butter anything: cups, pumpkins, Christmas trees, eggs. You get the idea.

9. Do you have a pet or pets? If so, what kind and what are their names?
I don't have any pets of my own, but I do spoil the heck out of Ally and Melissa's dog, Tyler:

10. What are your favorite fiction and nonfiction books?
I don't read much nonfiction, but I do enjoy reading about medieval history. As for fiction, I'll keep it simple and name just a few of my faves: Persuasion by Jane Austen, A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare, The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater.

11. What's your favorite beauty product?
Clinique Almost Lipstick. Love that stuff!

12. When were you last embarrassed? What happened?
I'm really awkward and embarrass myself often. Last week I had one of those moments where you wave at somebody you think you know and upon closer inspection you realize the person is a total stranger and probably now thinks you're a weirdo.

13. If you could only drink one beverage (besides water) for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Tea, of the plain old Lipton variety.

14. What's your favorite movie?
Like the favorite books question, there are too many to list here, so I'll just pick a few: Dirty Dancing, the original Star Wars movies, just about every Marvel movie, The Little Mermaid, Frozen.

15. What were you in high school: prom queen, nerd, cheerleader, jock, valedictorian, band geek, loner, artist, prep?
Nerd, for sure, though it's taken all these years to embrace my geekiness and be proud of it.

16. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?
Maybe England or Ireland. I'd consider going back to NYC as long as I didn't have to shovel snow.

17. PC or Mac?
As a college freshman I learned computer programming on a Mac, but everything was PC after that and has been ever since.

18. Last romantic gesture from a crush, date, boy/girlfriend, spouse?
Alas, I am still waiting to meet the real life counterpart to my fictional boyfriends.

19. Favorite celebrity?
Richard Armitage. My North and South DVDs are probably in danger of wearing out, particularly disc 2.

20. What blogger do you secretly wish you were best friends with?
I think of all of you whom I regularly chat with as besties. Seriously, I love you guys! ❤

If you decide to participate with a post of your own, please let me know, and I'll check it out!

Harry Potter Moment of the Week (54): Muggle-Born, Half-Blood, or Pureblood?

Harry Potter Moment of the Week is a meme hosted by Uncorked Thoughts. The aim of this meme is to share with fellow bloggers a character, spell, chapter, object or quote from the books/films/J. K. Rowling herself or anything Potter related! A list of upcoming topics can be found here.

This week's topic is:
Judging By Your Family, Would You Be Muggle-Born, Half-Blood or Pureblood?

Judging by my family, I believe that I would be a Half-Blood. It is incredibly hard for me to imagine my entire family possessing magic, however, my family is anything but normal. The most realistic choice seemed to be me coming from a family of Half-Bloods. I believe my father’s side of the family would be from the wizarding world, while my mother’s side would all be Muggles. Lee, coming from my dad’s side of the family, would be a Pureblood. I have two other siblings, Melissa and Denis, and I would like to think that all of us would possess magic, otherwise they would terribly jealous. Even with our magical abilities, I feel like my mother would still make us do chores the old-fashioned Muggle way, lol.

September 2014 Recap

It's officially fall! That just blows my mind. I technically completed the TBR Pile Challenge this month! My goal was 11-20 books, and I've passed the 11 mark. I'm going to keep trying to make the higher end of the range, too. With one goal met, I'm feeling even more motivated to completing my other 2 reading challenges for this year!

Reviews Posted:

• The Water Mirror by Kai Meyer
• Half Bad by Sally Green
• Haze by Paula Weston
• Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan
• Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
• The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta
• The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead

Featured Posts:

• 2014 Fall Releases I Need to Read
• Found Around the Shelves: The Simpsons
• Read the Book or See the Movie First?

TBR Reading Challenge Progress:

• Books Read/Reviewed: 4 (Total for Year: 14)

Australian Women Writers Challenge Progress:

• Books Read/Reviewed: 3 (Total for Year: 3)